Jefferson School, 1888-1930

JEFFERSON SCHOOL 1888-1930 was in old District 6 on the north side of Jefferson Pike and west of the village and the Florence Road intersection. The school was bound by the Jefferson-Milton Turnpike, by J. W. Lenoir, and by Daniel King.

On September 15, 1888, John W. Lenoir, who was a school commissioner, and his wife Bettie Waller sold two acres of land which she had inherited from her father to School Commissioners L. A. Ward, J. B. Ward, and William Thompson. In 1896 the school commissioners were R. H.
White, R. A. Mann, and Tom Miller.

The one-room building was frame with a porch at front and back. The desks were all double. In about 1917, another classroom was added as a wing on the back east side. The wing had a porch facing front. This second room also had a stage at one end and curtains to divide the space into two
classrooms.

Among the early teachers were Nannie Wade about 1890, Jim Lloyd, Dora Sanders, a former student and a teacher in 1895, Sally Lloyd, 1896, John Williams in 1896-1897, Nora Burns, music, Mr. Butler, Mr. Caldwell, Frances Watt Hibbett, Myrtle Gracy, Sallie Clemmons, Mary McNeal in 1909, Mira May Patterson, Dora Rooker, and Richie Wade Ferguson.

Dessie Nisbett joined Richie Wade in the two-room school. By 1919 there were four teachers: Virginia Tilford, Ray Coleman, Tennie Halliburton, and Dessie Nisbett. Others who followed were Margaret Ward and Walter Moore in 1921-1922, Bessie Wright Moore, Ophelia Elam, Viola Tucker,
Jessie Sanders, Everett Beasley, Margaret Hazlewood, Anna Bell Becton, Quanita Hale, Mattie Becton, Preston Cason, Ernest Waldron, Mrs. Roy Nesbitt, and Emmett Waidron.

Frances King Johns, who started teaching in 1928, was a teacher when the school burned in 1930.

Nora Peyton as an early student. Those who are known to have received certificates on May 20, 1892 to enter secondary school were Anna Eliza Holloway, Nell and Johnnie Holloway, Nellie Malone, Mary Vaughn, Jamie Swain, and Lula Espey.

Adeline King, a former student, is quoted by Gene Sloan as describing the JEFFERSON SCHOOL “as a ragged beggar sunning but the days there were as rich as country butter . . . . Teachers were firm disciplinarians, still kind and unselfish.

In spite of the efforts of the students and teachers who formed a bucket brigade, the school burned in 1930. Classes for the rest of the year were held in one big room of the Jefferson Church of Christ.

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